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An Artist’s Impressions

Having been on lots of fantrips myself over the years, I have come to learn that sometimes numerous people on such trips end up with, essentially, the same pictures. Such is surely not the case for today’s guest contributor, photographer Laura Hedien, who promotes her work under the moniker Storm Clouds Photography.

The occasion was a recent fantrip to raise money for the Fox River Trolley Museum, which suffered a tremendous amount of damage earlier this year, due to the vandalism caused by two teenagers. While many people have already donated to help restore the museum’s priceless collection, the need is still great and ongoing. You can donate through their web page, linked above.

An artist can see things that most of us would pass by. Sometimes, we can all benefit by looking at the “same old, same old,” through another person’s eyes.

We are very grateful to Laura for sharing her great images with our readers. I regret that I could not attend the trip myself, as we were recently in the middle of moving. If you haven’t moved in several years, I am sure you can appreciate how much work that can be.

Laura is very active on Facebook, and when presenting her work, did not arrange these images in a chronological order. They are more like a succession of fleeting images than a standard narrative. The captions are hers.

We hope that you will enjoy them as much as we have. After seeing Laura’s work, I will never look at fantrip photos the same way again, but will instead try to find something new and different to photograph, as she has so ably done. She looked at it as more than just an opportunity to photograph some railcars, but instead viewed the entire “L” in the context of the great city it passes through.

-David Sadowski

PS- Thanks to all of those who came out to meet us at last week’s event at Centuries and Sleuths bookstore in Forest Park.

-train tunnel just north of Linden Av Wilmette

sweeping into the City…

-coming around the bend! heads up!

-LOL.. now that I know how to shoot sun flares.. this won’t happen again….

-steel of the cityNot sure which wins out… a little of the wild and the city is a good mix I guess…

-right behind us!

-not just ANY fire escape…. but a RED one!!! LOL…

-a shapely pic… all sorts of triangles…

Cityscape…

-Howard Yard near Evanston — at Chicago, Illinois

-stop near Evanston

-we used eight of the 2400s cars….

north Howard Yard

-Howard Yard

-Tom had more fun than the picture tells.. honest! LOL…

-CTA Yellow Line out of Howard St…

-more Howard Yard. Looks like the trains are charging but held in check by the curve… LOL…

-oh no!! Not those again!

-Wilson Av stop… supposed to be redone in the old style of the ’20s….

-big curve

-couple sweeping curves

-cemetery coming into the city..

Go Cubbies!!

-nothing special… just repeating forms, shapes….

-yikes

-so many shapes… triangles, cures, squares, circles….

-street view from the L

-a curve on the L in the Loop…

-curve coming into the city…

-repeating lines, shapes…..

-big sweeping arch.. and train tracks!!!

-a people pic! And a child no less!!! LOL…

-a lot of space in the front of this pic…. a lot going on in the back…

-L train bridge… so happy to be able to take pics on the train without the third degree…. These fan trips are fun!

-our Special comin’ round the bend!They let us catch a train ahead of us so we could get off to shoot our train…

-perspective is different… moody…

-another long, sweeping curve….

-Chicago River on the L bridge

-AUGH! Those damn fire escapes!!!!

-large walkway, concrete arch… angles….

-was trying to get pics of the motorman but the reflection was too strong… sometimes accidents are good.

-backwards shot in the Loop

-strange perspective with this…. wide angle lenses do that…

-cityscape… never the same… be that good or bad…

The Trolley Dodger On the Air

We were recently asked by WGN radio here in Chicago to discuss our book Building Chicago’s Subways on the Dave Plier Show. You can hear our 19-minute conversation here.

Order Our New Book Building Chicago’s Subways

There are three subway anniversaries this year in Chicago:60 years since the West Side Subway opened (June 22, 1958)75 years since the State Street Subway opened (October 17, 1943)80 years since subway construction started (December 17, 1938)

To commemorate these anniversaries, we have written a new book, Building Chicago’s Subways.

While the elevated Chicago Loop is justly famous as a symbol of the city, the fascinating history of its subways is less well known. The City of Chicago broke ground on what would become the “Initial System of Subways” during the Great Depression and finished 20 years later. This gigantic construction project, a part of the New Deal, would overcome many obstacles while tunneling through Chicago’s soft blue clay, under congested downtown streets, and even beneath the mighty Chicago River. Chicago’s first rapid transit subway opened in 1943 after decades of wrangling over routes, financing, and logistics. It grew to encompass the State Street, Dearborn-Milwaukee, and West Side Subways, with the latter modernizing the old Garfield Park “L” into the median of Chicago’s first expressway. Take a trip underground and see how Chicago’s “I Will” spirit overcame challenges and persevered to help with the successful building of the subways that move millions. Building Chicago’s subways was national news and a matter of considerable civic pride–making it a “Second City” no more!

Chapter Titles:
01. The River Tunnels
02. The Freight Tunnels
03. Make No Little Plans
04. The State Street Subway
05. The Dearborn-Milwaukee Subway
06. Displaced
07. Death of an Interurban
08. The Last Street Railway
09. Subways and Superhighways
10. Subways Since 1960

Building Chicago’s Subways is in stock and now available for immediate shipment. Order your copy today! All copies purchased through The Trolley Dodger will be signed by the author.

The price of $23.99 includes shipping within the United States.

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Redone tile at the Monroe and Dearborn CTA Blue Line subway station, showing how an original sign was incorporated into a newer design, May 25, 2018. (David Sadowski Photo)

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This is certainly not in the mode of typical railfan photography; it’s an artist’s viewpoint of the city of Chicago. I was puzzled by the edifice in the ninth photo in the series, until I enlarged it enough to read the street sign. Said building was endowed by Queen Victoria after the 1871 fire, known until recently as the main Chicago Public Library.
Not mentioned in this piece is that Laura Hedien is the founder of the North Shore Line Yahoo Group.

George and all, The dark stairway in the pic is the entrance to the IC’s Randolph St. Station (Millennium if you are very young). In my youth, the news stand right there sold Trains, and Railroad as well as the regular mainstream mags and papers.

Montgomery Ward is turning over in his grave at the mention of Millennium Park. He declared at the founding of Grant Park that no structure would be erected in the space between Randolph Street and 12th Street (Roosevelt Road) save for the Art Institute.

I see were the CTA Heritage train from the 1920’s will be out for a Fan Trip in May. Fund Raiser for CTA Heritage Fleet and Fox River Trolley Museum. See their web sitehttps://www.foxtrolley.org/CTA-4000s-Trip